Brewers closer Corey Knebel day-to-day with ‘tweaked’ knee

If there’s one member of the Milwaukee Brewers bullpen the team can’t afford to lose for a significant amount of time this year, it’s probably Corey Knebel.

Knebel had an injury scare in today’s 9-2 win over the Colorado Rockies, though, and like Milli Vanilli, you can blame it on the rain.

Knebel was 18 pitches into his appearance against the Rockies today when he called the training staff out of the dugout in the middle of an at-bat. He was pulled from the game and didn’t seem happy as he walked off the field, but also didn’t appear to be in a large amount of pain.

Tim Dillard, up from minor league camp as an emergency arm today, came on in relief. He ended up giving up two runs in the inning, both of which were charged to Knebel.

After the game, manager Craig Counsell said Knebel was mostly taken out of the game as a precaution after slipping on the mound. Rain had been falling for about an inning before Knebel’s appearance.

Luckily, it doesn’t look like the injury should affect Knebel’s ability to be ready for Opening Day, which is still about three weeks away. He was due for regularly-scheduled time off anyway after his appearance today:

Even if Knebel needs a few extra days beyond his planned days off, relievers need significantly less time to get sharp for the regular season than starters — a reason why he didn’t make his spring debut until March 1st and only had two appearances before today.

Like the Zach Davies oblique injury, it looks like the time being missed will be due to an abundance of caution, and not due to the severity of the injury.